Simple Words
by Megaloo
Summary: Zoro/Chopper in a series of short scenes. Friendship and almost-romance fluff.


Zoro/Chopper FLUFF. Fluff, I say. You have been WARNED. Written for jumpexchange, for my dear friend jazzyjello, who loves Chopper. Basically just very Chopper-centric. A series of scenes showing the progression of a relationship. And I swear there is NOTHING DISTURBING ABOUT THIS ONE! Which seems hard to believe, but it's true.

* * *

"A DOCTOR A DOCTOR!! SOMEONE GET A DOCTOR!"

Business as usual aboard the Thousand Sunny. The sight of the slightest amount of blood had Chopper instantly running in circles for a doctor, despite the fact that it was only a splinter in Usopp's foot from running barefoot across the patch of deck that Franky had been repairing that morning after a fight with a bunch of sadistic Marines who had enjoyed flinging multitudes of cannon balls at them from every direction, the first one being the only one to hit as it had woken everyone up (Even Usopp, who had been on watch and suffered the loss of his shoes as a consequence of not being a better watchperson. They were currently on Luffy's hands as he ran around on deck pretending to be some sort of four-legged beast).

Soon, Nami's shouting for everyone to SHUT UP, PLEASE joined the overwhelming noise of Usopp's howls of anguish, Luffy's cavorting and clomping around deck, Chopper's wails for a doctor, the loud hammering of Franky fixing the deck, the sound of curses from the kitchen as Luffy ran through and the nearly inaudible (especially in the current atmosphere) of the turning pages of Robin's book.

Zoro's left eye slowly cracked open from his napping spot against the rail as Chopper ran towards his feet. He lifted a leg suddenly, stopping the reindeer in his tracks. "Isn't that you?"

"Oh! Right!" Chopper stood still for a minute, flashing Zoro a bright smile. "NOT THAT I NEED YOUR APPROVAL, JERK!" He clapped his hands in a dance of joy before running off to the infirmary for tweezers and a bandage for Usopp's abused foot.

Peace was soon restored as Usopp's howls were replaced by his expressive tale of the giant feet-eating monsters made of wood that had once tried to defeat him, but had failed in the face of the Great Captain Usopp and the awed gasps from Chopper and Luffy. The rest of the ship breathed a giant sight of relief and went back to work.

Zoro went back to sleep.

--

The island was inhabited with the most annoying sort of natives imaginable. They weren't friendly, didn't speak any sort of recognizable language and were apparently insulted by Sanji's eyebrow. Or at least that's what Zoro was saying right before a rope or a wire or something not-particularly-nice was dropped around his neck and hauled him up into the air.

Of course after that, the fight didn't last too long. Luffy sent about half of them flying off into the trees while Sanji bashed in a few heads and Usopp ran around in circles shouting about keeping his hand at the level of his eyes. What took awhile was finding Zoro in the tree branches afterwards, as he'd managed to get lost looking for a way down.

Later when Luffy had sent him to Chopper, he couldn't even argue the point due to the swelling around his throat. Not that he was going to admit it hurt even if he COULD talk, because it definitely didn't. But Chopper liked being able to patch him up and it was hard to insult Sanji for being such a prissy boy when his voice sounded like rocks rolling around in a barrel or something—and not in a good way.

Chopper stared at him in confusion when he sat down with a look that seemed to say 'Okay, I'm here, fix it.'

"There's no blood," he stated in confusion. Zoro never came to get fixed up unless he was oozing blood from almost every pore in his body.

"That's not.." Zoro began in his scratchy not-voice before Chopper spotted his already purpling neck.

"AAHHH, THERE'S A MONSTER IN ZORO'S THROAT!"

Zoro attempted to clear his throat, gave up and just leveled a steady look at the once again panicking reindeer.

Chopper stopped in his tracks and quickly slapped a hoof over Zoro's mouth. "No, no talking! I'm the doctor and you need to rest your voice!"

Zoro grinned. He was going to be fine.

Luffy laughed happily as he watched his nakama. Zoro was grinning at Chopper as he danced back and forth with his bandages and ointments, berating the swordsman for having so much faith in him and how it didn't make him happy _at all_.

--

"And then, right as everything looked like it was going back to normal a GHOST swooped down on us and stole the precious treasure, flying off with a mad cackle! My skin went cold, but I, the Great Captain Usopp, would not be stopped by some thousand year old ghost with a desire for vengeance! No sir, I was going to get the treasure back for the lovely and generous princess, even if it cost me my life…"

They'd been at sea for weeks with no sign of the next island the log pose was supposedly pointing them towards. They'd been fishing every day, and thankfully there seemed to be a lot of large and stupid fish in these waters because a bored Luffy is a Luffy who wants to eat constantly. Upon a stern look from Nami and an order that if Luffy walked into the galley _one more time_ that NO ONE was getting dinner, Usopp was convinced to distract their bored captain with the scariest stories he could think of.

Luffy loved them, almost as much as he liked re-enacting them afterwards, with Usopp often ending up as a vanquished ghost of some sort.

Chopper had taken to hiding as far away as possible while still being able to hear the stories. Usopp told really fun stories! But these ones made him nervous. They were scary! But he still wanted to hear Usopp's awesome stories. And Luffy wasn't afraid so why should he be? But ghosts were scary!

Zoro cracked an eye open when he felt something latch onto his foot. Chopper was trying and failing to hide behind said foot and he could just hear the beginnings of another ghost story floating from around the mast.

"Hey." Zoro wiggled his foot to get the doctor's attention.

Chopper leaped into the air, clearly not having noticed the fact that Zoro was _awake_

"AAAHHHHHHH!! A GHOST, A GHOST, A GHOST!!"

His cries sent Usopp running in panic circles and brought Luffy running. "REALLY, WHERE?! I WANNA FIGHT IT!!"

Zoro sighed and closed his eyes. They'd quiet down eventually.

That night Chopper tossed and turned in his hammock, thinking about being possessed by white whispy spirit things that shoved his brain out through his nose and made worms grow in his stomach. It was really scary and he kept hearing things rattling around in the bunkroom and everyone was asleep except Sanji who was up on watch and planning meals because they were running out of food so no one would see the ghosts attacking him and even Usopp's snores weren't going to scare them away and…

Chopper's hammock was rattling. The reindeer was shaking so hard the _entire hammock_ was rattling. Zoro sighed. Stupid liar had the poor guy completely terrified and was clearly not planning to do anything about it.

"Chopper."

The reindeer in question muffled a squeak with his hooves. But it was Zoro. Zoro was strong and awesome and could probably cut ghosts into teeny tiny pieces.

Zoro scooted over on the couch he'd claimed for the night, leaving a Chopper-sized space free. "Come over here," he said softly into the sleeping room.

Chopper hesitated. He was a pirate. He was supposed to be brave. He wasn't supposed to need to curl up next to someone big and strong just because he had nightmares.

Zoro smirked into the darkness. He was trying to grow up, which was good. But he was still shaking so hard that the hammock could maybe shake loose of the ceiling and that definitely fell in the category of Things Nami Would Kill Them For.

But damn. This meant he had to be sneaky or something.

"I, uh. Have a story to tell you?" Oh well that just sounded completely stupid. "And I don't want to wake everyone else up…" Stupid, stupid, stupid. But there was a clipping of hooves across the floor and Chopper curled up in the space provided.

"Is it a happy story?" He was still shaking, but at least he wasn't suspended by ropes from the ceiling anymore.

"…It's okay to be scared. If something's really scary."

"Zoro's never scared though." Chopper had buried his face somewhere in the vicinity of Zoro's armpit. Which almost tickled. He tickled the fur behind Chopper's ear to get even.

"Well." Zoro's eyes crossed. Thinking through everything he had to say was annoying. "I used to think spiders were a little scary?" He had too. When he was about four-years-old.

"Really?"

Zoro nodded seriously. "Really." Chopper wasn't shaking so badly now. Which was good. "Ghosts aren't real."

"But Usopp said--!" Chopper raised his head and looked at Zoro in confusion.

"It's just a story. It's not real."

Chopper frowned, clearly not sure whether he wanted to believe him. They had SOUNDED like real stories.

Zoro grabbed one of Chopper's hooves and held it to his heart beat. "Ghosts don't have this. This is what makes us real."

Chopper's eyed widened before he nodded and decided that even if ghosts _weren't_ real, that Zoro would still make a good pillow for the night. He'd complain about how it didn't make him happy in the morning.

--

"I wasn't scared at all, Zoro." Chopper was sitting in front of Zoro's sleeping spot on the Sunny. They'd just fought off a bunch of annoying marines that had attempted to take out Luffy, Zoro and Sanji from a discrete distance. It hadn't worked, of course, and they hadn't counted on the "weaker" members of the crew wanting to kick them into the next world and just about succeeding. Nami'd called down lightning, Chopper had terrorized them, Usopp caused several minor explosions while Robin was flinging marines left and right and Franky just about punched a hole in their ship. They'd tried to be smart, but ended up very stupid. No one's fault but their own, really.

The Straw Hats they'd attempted to take out were fine; they hadn't even been scratched by the missiles. But Luffy had stepped back and let his nakama get angry and fight on their own. He had faith in his nakama. And he was hungry.

Zoro smiled at Chopper. He was proud of them, they hadn't done half bad. But he did wish he'd gotten to cut a few of the idiots up.

"But it was really cool, Zoro! Why didn't I get scared?? I always get scared!"

"You don't always get scared."

"Well, at least a _little_ scared." Chopper fought back a pleased wiggle.

Zoro yawned and closed his eyes. He might not have gotten to fight today, but it was still naptime. "We're nakama. That's why you weren't scared."

Chopper peered at Zoro for a good few minutes, contemplating his lack of fear.

Finally, he grinned and nodded. "I like that."

But Zoro was already asleep.

--

There were some days when very weird things happened on the Grand Line. Actually, those days constituted _most_ days on the Line, especially on the Thousand Sunny.

"LUFFY GOT EATEN BY A GIANT FISH WITH PINK SPOTS!!"

Zoro grunted in his sleep. It was probably just Usopp.

…But Usopp was in his workshop making something. He was making the deck vibrate. Pretty comfortable, really.

Zoro opened his eyes.

Chopper was running full speed right at him, still shouting bloody-murder about Luffy and a pink-polka-dotted-fish-of-rather-large-proportions. Zoro sighed and stood up, heading towards the figure head that Luffy was _probably_ snatched from.

"HE'S GONNA DIIIIE!!" Chopper wailed.

"No he's not." Zoro removed his swords, propping them against the rail. "But the fish will." He took his shirt off too; it was his last clean one for the moment. "Go tell the shitty cook." Shit-eating grin as he got ready to dive after his missing captain. "Fish for dinner tonight."

Chopper stopped, nodded and smiled before running towards the galley: "I DON'T NEED YOUR COMFORTING WORDS!! SAAAANJI!!"

They had fish for dinner for the next two days.

--

Zoro was not cold. His fingers and toes and other extremities might be a bit blue in nature, but he was definitely Not Cold. It was training. No weather could beat him. He was. Not. Cold.

Especially not his head, which had a particular furry reindeer wrapped around it, shrilly explaining why exactly it was to let his head get too cold.

Which wasn't helping his training, but wasn't bad either.

--

Something was apparently wrong. Chopper had scurried up to him, stopped, run off, come back, stopped and repeated about five times now. That was not normal. And it was interrupting his nap. Zoro cautiously opened one eye to see what the hell was going on only to send Chopper running again even faster than before.

He closed his eye again and let out a fake snore, waiting for him to come back.

Which he did, about ten minutes later.

"Something wrong?"

Chopper squeaked and tried to run off. But the Best Swordsman in the World couldn't be slower than a talking reindeer pirate doctor less than half his size, so he was pretty easily stopped.

Zoro took a good look at him. Was it _possible_ for someone with that much fur to blush?

"N-n-n-nothing!"

Zoro raised an eyebrow, waiting for a better answer than that.

"I'm too hot!" It was a pretty cool day, actually. Nice breeze. "And I keep turning red," Zoro had noticed—that was a bit strange, "and my heartbeat is abnormal and my stomach feels funny and I can't figure out _why!!_"

"Hm."

"And it gets worse whenever I come near you, but you always make things better so I don't know what to do and I still don't know why!"

Zoro's face split into a grin as he tugged the reindeer into the space beneath his arm. Chopper looked up at him with big, curious eyes.

"Is it something bad? AM I GOING TO DIE?"

Zoro laughed, quietly, of course. "No."

Chopper started to relax.

"No. No, that's just love."

Zoro closed his eyes and held the little reindeer close. Time to go back to sleep.

"Love," Chopper murmured. That was pretty okay. Especially since it was Zoro.

Zoro always knew exactly what to say.

--fin--


End file.
